- Focus on trade, normalization and standardization (much of it could be voluntary though), environment and crime. These are all cross-border issues. It should stay out of most other things and at the very least try to make things opt-in.
- Require qualified majority (>= 75%) for EU parliament decisions. That should reduce the stream of leglislation coming from the EU.
- Introduce a judicial review with the purpose (and power) to veto any law which doesn't make sense as EU-wide regulation. Sort of like a constitutional court. For example, the parliament recently voted on EU-wide parental leave rules. Completely pointless to decide on an EU-level.
- Remove the entire Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), basically just a ton of farm-subsidies. Many European countries had a healthy farming sector without subsidies before joining the union. This is ~45% of the budget btw.
- Don't move the parliament to Strasburg every now and then. Not a huge cost but should be abolished on principles.
Making trade deals not between individual countries but as a bloc is common and not an EU invention. The EU is hardly alone in thinking this is a good thing. Additionally due to the single market, trade with one EU member, is effectively trading with every EU member anyway. So it makes sense to make trade deals with other countries and trading blocs on an EU level as well. This further reduces bureaucracy overall because not every country has to maintain the expertise and people for that.
Normalization and standardization is also relevant to the single market as it reduces the barriers for trade between EU members. Legislation on classification on produce for example, makes it easier for consumers to buy large amount of produce from anywhere in the EU.
Requiring a qualified majority is ridiculous. There is no parliament anywhere in the world that works this way unless it's making constitutional changes.
There are courts on a EU level and they can strike down laws. This has happened with data retention, safe harbor and there is a possibility of it happening again with privacy shield. Automatic judicial review is also rather pointless when it comes to the majority of laws, expensive and would add to the bureaucracy you argue against generally.
That you think EU-wide parental leave policies are pointless to decide on an EU-level, doesn't necessarily make them illegal. So I doubt that the courts would help you there. They also aren't pointless because they obviously make it easier for employees to move between countries, this reduces barriers and improves free trade on the labour market, it also ensures that the freedom to work everywhere in the EU is actually meaningful. I'm sure there are more reasons for that legislation, beyond these obvious ones, if you look at the details.
The farm subsidies are a grotesque and massive fuck up and they need to be removed. I completely agree with you on that one. Though I'm afraid dismantling this is like dismantling a bomb and might very well produce quite a mess in the short term, if done wrong. It nevertheless should be done though.
I agree that this moving around should stop. It's a waste of money and maybe even more importantly a waste of time.
- Require qualified majority (>= 75%) for EU parliament decisions. That should reduce the stream of leglislation coming from the EU.
- Introduce a judicial review with the purpose (and power) to veto any law which doesn't make sense as EU-wide regulation. Sort of like a constitutional court. For example, the parliament recently voted on EU-wide parental leave rules. Completely pointless to decide on an EU-level.
- Remove the entire Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), basically just a ton of farm-subsidies. Many European countries had a healthy farming sector without subsidies before joining the union. This is ~45% of the budget btw.
- Don't move the parliament to Strasburg every now and then. Not a huge cost but should be abolished on principles.